To Try to Put on Paper the the Events of Forty Years Is a Daunting Thought Indeed, How

. The Beginning

Grandfather was a brilliant engineer,during the era of steam. A product of a different time when work was hard to find,steady employment even for the talented ,was the be all and end all. He was employed by Babcock and Wilcox Engineering as a head of installations being responsible for all matters including comissioning and testing , of the many steam driven sytems introduced into industrial factories in the early part of the last century.

With job security a hard won thing ,he accepted every contract offered . The prodigious amount of travelling that this entailed gave rise to peroids of separation

untill,specific contracts were established and accomodation for the family found this made the growing family a much travelled entity with few stable long term relationship oportunities. Grandfather&Grandmother West

From my earliest recollection the family included six brothers ,who incidentally were all born in different towns, Rob, Lewis (father) ,Sid,Fred,Reg &Ron.all had the genetic link from grandfather of a total fascination with all things mechanical ,gladly exchanging the alleged,polution that the new age transport the motor car represented ,in place of a ride, in a carriage behind a flatulant horse especially in hilly country.

Aprenticeships were always purported to be the one way to a secure future. Skilled engineerswould always be needed commanding respect and able to attain financial security.(according to grandfather)’

. Having had the good fortune to pass out from an excellent grammar school in Cambridge, With what was a good quality school certificate, I felt a need to make some headway towards financial Independence, University although offered could not really be contemplated.

Father managed to get me an indentured apprentice ship at Marshalls Aircraft Works, this was really a stroke of luck as they were broadening their apprenticeship scheme to a 5 year course to include all the engineering skills to enable the resultant engineers to sit for certification by the Air Registration Board.if they wished.

Toward the end of the 5 yrs the genes came into play once again ,Frequent sightings of Archie Scott-brown taking the Lister to Snetterton for testing (Marshalls is adjacent to Newmarket rd) seemed to awaken something in me as a more attainable field to use the knowledge and expertise gained in the aircraft industry, as many of the parameters are common aerodynamics, light weight, total reliability in all you undertake to name but a few.,My national service was served in the RAF and as such managed to get promotion to technician status due to my tech background in the aircraft field, travelled around the country from the Wirral, the Fylde, North Yorkshire, finishing at East Midlands, all experiences in themselves.

The Bug Bites Cambridge at this time was the home of the magnificent Lister Car Company manufacturers of racing sports cars. Their star driver was Archie Scott-Brown a man of huge charisma inspite of some physical impairment in his legs and one arm.,a pioneer in the use of Snetterton ,His driving ability was legendary, which when combined with the meticulous engine preparation of Mr Don Moore. made Listers a formidable team, and a force to be reckoned with ,any where they went, sadly Archie got kllled at Spa shortly before I joined Don Moore.,. Sda His workshop was at the rear of the building where father worked , they knew each other quite well . He was looking for a skilled engineer to help with increasing the breadth of his activities ,father arranged for an interview , and Don and I agreed terms, so started what was to become a momentous change in direction. Jaguar work continued , for clients like Mr J Diggory, of Wrexham., Ivor Bueb, and Bruce Halford. Along with some reduced involvement with the Lister works Cars . The university had traditionally produced many customers with motor sport inclinations the relative availability of funds for both academic and leisure activities was evident in some of the many callers to Dons Moores workshop.We carried out normal routine maintence on may of the more exotic machines that abounded in the town during term ,.when time permitted,” the sport ,”was however never far away. This was at the same time that Doc Sheperd was racing his A40 with his very special Weslake Engine ( had to be rebuilt every time it went on to their dyno , such was the toll of development on the hardware.) The Doc as he was known, needed relativly small amounts of sleep ,and often went practicing at night at Snetterton as the circuit is largley in an unpopulated area. His activities went on unnoticed for some ,time fortunately with out any major incident, he claimed that when he could not sleep it was good to practice at night “Its much less frightening “ was his only comment.

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\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Enter The Mini

The Mini by now had been launched and the Cooper variant envisaged and put into production some competition experience had begun to be gathered .BMC as it was then used several of the recognised tuning specialists as think tanks to enable the development of the Cooper to proceed apace hence the regular visits at Cambridge of the Abingdon set Dougies Hamlin and Watts , the work that went on was rightly quite secretive and special as the future successes of this magnificent little car were in the making

Many traumas were tackled and solutions found ,in such a groundbraking advance as the mini represented this was inevitable, when one considers theadvance atained over the level of road holding that had been the previously accepted norm . Pulling wheels off, clutch slip due to internal oil leakage, and a competition tyre that de –lamainated To name but a few.BMC engineered away the wet clutch. Early rally crews not taking kindly to having to Administer quanities of domestic VIM via the ign timing aperture (without marigolds) Rubery Owen made The wheels of thicker material and the problems were soon replaced buy the start of the now legendary result stream that this magnificent car produced making so many people into houshold names. Sir J Whitmore, John Aley, Christabel Carlisle, Paddy Hopkirk, John Rhodes Timo Makinen, to name but a few.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Christabel leading the works pair of Handley and Rhodes @ Cristal Palace